Hamilton and Button admit to car worries

McLaren's Lewis Hamilton and Jenson Button are concerned their new car is already lagging behind their rivals ahead of the new season.

The MP4-26 was belatedly unveiled at second testing in Jerez, with technical issues affecting Barcelona testing.

"We left it [unveiling the car] a bit later... and perhaps it's not played right into our hands," said Hamilton.

And Button confessed: "We've not done as much running as we would have liked, which has hurt our set-up."

After choosing to focus on development, McLaren delayed their car launch and missed first testing in Valencia, while things did not go smoothly for the car's debut in Jerez because of a lack of spare parts.

Hamilton, who finished fourth in last season's championship as Red Bull's Sebastian Vettel took the title, clocked up a useful 107 laps on the final day in Catalonia.

Hopefully things are going to run more sweetly at the next test in Barcelona

Jenson Button
But Hamilton, 26, finished 1.378 seconds off Felipe Massa's pace-setting time for Ferrari. And after Button had spent two days at the wheel, he concluded: "I still don't know where we stand."

Hamilton, however, did not deliver a wholly downbeat assessment of the new model.

Speaking at a media day at Surrey's Dunsfold Aerodrome, Hamilton continued: "We've good things in the pipeline, and we definitely improved in the last couple of days' testing."

McLaren are understood to be working on upgrading their exhaust package as they attempt to close the perceived gap on pacesetters Ferrari, who also have championship runner-up Fernando Alonso in their line-up, and Red Bull, who are led by Vettel and Mark Webber.

And it is a race against time that has been aided by the cancellation of the originally scheduled 13 March opener in Bahrain, where civil unrest has wiped the race off the F1 calendar until further notice.

The prospect, therefore, of further improvements before the revised season-opener in Melbourne (25-27 March) was also a source of optimism for Button.

"We do have four more days and hopefully things are going to run more sweetly at the next test [again at the Circuit de Catalunya beginning on 7 March] - we get a lot of laps in, and then we can improve the base we have," said 2009 champion Button.

"When I first jumped in the car my first reaction was not 'wow, we're going to blow everyone away'.

"But then I don't think anyone would have felt that because the car has a lot less downforce and the tyres [Pirelli] are working very differently to the previous tyre [Bridgestone]."

More on the story at BBC Sport Click Here

The new tyres from Pirelli are going to make a huge difference this season. Only time will tell if they have got the measure of an F1 car, or if some cars are just going to shred them . Maybe they don't suit the McLaren's.

its the unpredictability thats the talking point. We just dont know how these tires will fare. The drivers will have to adapt quick to them but all in all, it adds to the excitment of F1 and gives something new to the races.

McLaren have taken a gamble today in the hope of challenging for a podium this weekend. They have upgraded their cars with a completely new floor and exhaust system, both of which are key in creating critical aerodynamic downforce.

Its a bit of a risk to do so close to the race without any proper testing. Will the gamble pay off?

Source: BBC Sport click here